The SoapGirls | Tokyo Honey Trap | Dolarhyde, Bannermans, Edinburgh 26th July 2023

Before all that, local lads, Dolarhyde, started the evening off with a very fine set of contemporary and conventional metal tunes. They were excellent and were also the last ‘conventional’ band of the evening.

Information in English about Japanese electro-punk band, Tokyo Honey Trap, was very hard to come by but there was a real buzz and some actual excitement in advance of their appearance on this tour. They describe themselves as sounding like “The Sex Pistols with computer knowledge” and are an ostensibly female-fronted four-piece, playing with some pre-recorded electronica behind the standard bass / guitar / drums set-up. The likeable and engaging front-person sported a long Sex Pistols / God Save the Queen jacket over two strips of gaffa tape and PVC shorts and together with the coquettish virtuoso lady bass-player and the gentleman I believe is Tetsuya Nakagawa playing guitar in a sharp punk suit and grease-paint Lone Ranger mask, they were visually striking. They fairly rattled through a 30-minute set of smart glam-punk songs and their Asian flavour brought something tasty and just a bit different, which really struck a chord with the Mohican and mohawk brigade down the front, especially on songs like ‘UTI’ and ‘Beautiful Looooser’. In a short speech read from a piece of paper, they intimated that they would be back next year for a much longer set and I for one will look forward to seeing that.

The hard-working SoapGirls are no strangers to Edinburgh. They have built a solid reputation for delivering a stellar show which in turn attracted a strong and loyal following mixing punks, rockers and empowered ladies in equal measures. Most folks will know by now that sisters Mille (bass) and Mie (guitar) Debray got their name while kids from selling home-made soap for charity and they’ve been getting folks in a lather for several years now with their provocative live shows.

They took to the stage, as usual, in lingerie, high boots and towering hair-dos, although Mille’s boots did not even make it as far as their second number ‘Johnny Rotten’ before being discarded to facilitate barefoot back-bends, high kicks and yoga poses for the rest of the set. The ladies dispense some high-quality, high-octane punk-pop numbers, inter-changing on vocals and harmonies with a few death growls thrown in. They do have a male drummer who possibly feels a bit like that dork from The Corrs but gamely plays topless throughout and even goes the Full Monty behind the kit from midway through the set. Mie uses an extended spoken intro to ‘In My Skin’ to deliver a free-spirited defence of female empowerment and the girls’ right to express themselves as a prelude to divesting her top for the rest of the show. Her stance is warmly supported by audience members of

all orientations and many punters at the front are moved to remove their own tops in a gesture of solidarity, despite a preponderance of ‘dad-bods’. I bet they didn’t get that at the Jack Bauer show up the road at The Queens Hall!

The set goes by in a flash (no pun intended) with a really tasty collection of songs, quality playing, amusing banter and better-than-Braveheart faux-Scottish accents. The music absolutely stands up in its own right. They definitely don’t need to get their kit off to get attention, but as I said, they’re free-spirits, they’re confident, they look good and they want to, so why-the-f*ck-not? I did not detect any overt noncery in a frothy crowd that got right behind the band and celebrated exuberantly. It’s always good when bands break the mould and go off-template to put on something unique, new and different and our visitors from Africa and Japan certainly did that on the night so I will look forward to seeing them again.